The Anthony Richardson Sr. era in Indianapolis may already be over. According to reports, the Colts are considering trading the former fourth overall pick, with the team no longer viewing him as part of their plans at quarterback.
Richardson was drafted fourth overall in 2023 with sky-high expectations. He was the ultimate physical specimen. He ran like a running back. He threw the deep ball with real velocity. The problem has been everything else. Injuries. Accuracy issues. Reads that took too long. His development just never caught up to his raw talent.
The Colts brought in Daniel Jones as the presumed starter, and now they are ready to move 2025 sixth-round pick Riley Leonard into the backup role. That leaves Richardson without a clear job on the roster. When your team drafts a quarterback in the sixth round of last year’s draft and prefers him to you, that is the writing on the wall.
Trading Richardson is going to be tricky. His value is nowhere near what it was two years ago. Teams saw enough of him on the field to know the accuracy issues are real and the durability concerns are serious. But he is still just 24 years old. Someone is going to look at that arm talent and take a swing.
The obvious landing spots are teams with quarterback questions and a coach who thinks he can fix Richardson’s mechanics. The Cleveland Browns are always in the market for a quarterback. The New Orleans Saints have Derek Carr but no long-term answer. The Las Vegas Raiders have their own quarterback problems. Any of those could work.
Chris Ballard drafted Richardson. Trading him is essentially admitting the pick did not work out. That is not a comfortable acknowledgment for a front office to make, but it happens all the time in the modern NFL. You cut your losses and move on.
The Jones signing was the tell. When you bring in a veteran starter, you are signaling to the incumbent quarterback that his job is not safe. Jones has been through his own struggles, but he gives the Colts a floor that Richardson could not consistently provide.
Leonard as the backup is interesting. He was a productive college quarterback at Duke and Notre Dame. The Colts must see something in him worth keeping over Richardson. That is the tell about how far the Richardson stock has fallen internally.
For Richardson himself, a change of scenery might actually help. Everyone in Indianapolis knows what he has not done. A new team, a new coach, a fresh evaluation, and reduced expectations could give him space to actually develop. The raw talent is still there.
The Colts have to be careful how they handle this. Move him too fast and you get a fraction of what you should. Wait too long and his value drops even further. Ballard has some decisions to make.
The NFL is not sentimental. High draft picks bust all the time. What matters now is what the Colts do next and whether Richardson can find a home where he becomes the player his talent suggested he could be.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
